Israel launched a uncommon airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah navy official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike on Lebanon’s capital in a long time, with Lebanese authorities reporting not less than 14 individuals killed and dozens extra wounded within the assault.

The Israeli navy’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, stated the strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Power, in addition to 10 different Hezbollah operatives.

“We are going to proceed pursuing our enemies with a view to defend our residents, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” stated Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli strike that focused Akil as a part of “a brand new part of struggle.”

A number of hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil’s dying. In a press release, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as “an incredible jihadist chief” and stated he had “joined the procession of his brothers, the nice martyr leaders, after a blessed life stuffed with jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, risks, challenges, achievements, and victories.”

Akil served on Hezbollah’s highest navy physique, the Jihad Council. He was sanctioned by the US for his alleged involvement within the 1983 bombing that killed greater than 300 individuals on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.

Final yr, the U.S. State Division posted a $7 million reward for data resulting in his identification, location, arrest or conviction, citing his position within the embassy bombing and within the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon within the Eighties.

The strike got here as a brand new cycle of escalation between the enemies raised fears of a full-out struggle erupting within the Center East.

Hours earlier than the Israeli strike, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets because the area awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah over this week’s mass explosions of pagers belonging to members of the Shiite militant group.

The Israeli navy didn’t present the identities of the opposite Hezbollah commanders allegedly killed in its strike on the crowded neighborhood simply kilometers from downtown Beirut.

Lebanon’s Well being Ministry stated not less than 14 individuals have been killed and 66 others have been wounded within the assault, which leveled the residence constructing the place the Israeli military claimed Akil had been assembly with different militants within the basement. 9 of the wounded have been in critical situation, the ministry added.

Native networks in Lebanon broadcast footage exhibiting first responders sifting by the rubble of a collapsed high-rise within the Jamous space within the coronary heart of Dahiya, the place Hezbollah conducts lots of its political and safety operations.

The rescue operation continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the assault, as first responders wrestled to take away the rubble to succeed in the basement of the constructing the place apparently most of the our bodies have been situated.

Friday’s airstrike — the deadliest such assault on a neighborhood of Beirut since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody, monthlong struggle in 2006 — hit throughout rush hour, as individuals have been leaving work and youngsters heading house from faculty.

At Beirut’s St. Therese Hospital close to the scene of the airstrike, crowds flocked to donate blood for these wounded within the assault.

“We’re all collectively on this scenario, so it is my obligation,” stated Hussein Harake, who lined as much as donate blood.

From Israel, Gallant stated he briefed senior navy officers on the strike and vowed Israel would press on in opposition to Hezbollah “till we obtain our aim, making certain the protected return of Israel’s northern communities to their properties.”

The strike got here after Hezbollah launched one in every of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in practically a yr of combating, largely concentrating on Israeli navy websites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile protection system intercepted a lot of the Katyusha rockets. The few that acquired by sparked small fires however induced little injury and no Israeli casualties.

Hezbollah described its newest wave of rocket salvos as a response to previous Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon — not as revenge for the mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed not less than 37 individuals – together with two kids – and wounded 2,900 others in assaults extensively attributed to Israel.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement on this week’s subtle assaults, which signaled a serious escalation prior to now 11 months of simmering battle alongside the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded hearth commonly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli navy’s devastating offensive in Gaza. However earlier cross-border assaults have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated elements of southern Lebanon.

The final time Israel hit Beirut was in a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.

“The assault in Lebanon is to guard Israel,” Hagari stated at a information convention following Friday’s strike, describing each Shukr and Akil as the 2 navy officers closest to Hezbollah chief Nasrallah.

Hagari additionally accused Akil of plotting a sequence of assaults in opposition to Israeli troopers and civilians courting again a long time, together with a never-realized plan to invade northern Israel in an identical option to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assaults.

After Friday’s Israeli airstrike, Hezbollah introduced assaults on northern Israel, two of which it stated focused an intelligence base from the place it claimed Israel directed assassinations.

Israel stays on edge, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to maintain up strikes on Israel regardless of the humiliating “blow” he stated Hezbollah suffered within the sabotage of its communication gadgets.

“We’re in a tense interval,” Hagari instructed reporters Friday. “We’re ready on excessive alert each offensively and defensively.”

In latest days, Israel has despatched a robust combating drive to the northern border, designated as an official struggle aim the return of tens of 1000’s of displaced residents to their properties in northern Israel and ordered residents close to Israel’s border with Lebanon to remain near bomb shelters. Hezbollah has maintained that it’s going to solely halt its hearth when there’s a cease-fire in Gaza.

Hamas, which continues to struggle Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli strike concentrating on Akil as a “new crime” and “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

Even because the world’s consideration turns to the surge in Israel-Hezbollah tensions, Palestinian casualties within the besieged Gaza Strip continued to mount.

Palestinian well being authorities early Friday reported that 15 individuals, together with kids, have been killed in Israeli strikes that focused a household house and a gaggle of individuals on the road in Gaza Metropolis. Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza has already killed not less than 41,000 Palestinians, in keeping with the Gaza-based Well being Ministry, which would not differentiate between fighters and civilians.

In response to a request for touch upon the newest Gaza strikes, the Israeli navy insisted on Friday that it took “possible precautions to mitigate civilian hurt” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians by working in residential areas.

Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip — launched in response to Hamas killing 1,200 individuals and taking 250 hostage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 — has wreaked huge destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.3 million.